[Reader-list] Children and the Railway Station

[zainab at xtdnet.nl]

Children and Railway Station

This evening, I was at VT railway station with my classmate Gauri. Gauri
wanted to drink something hot and she decided to halt at the coffee stall.
This coffee stall also sells fantastic hot chocolate. And I have received
several recommendations to try it out. Gitika, a regular commuter, tells
me that hot chocolate is her favourite – ten rupees for a one good glass –
ecstasy, warmth and chocolate.

Lured by the desire to drink hot chocolate and experience the flurry of
co-commuters and myself as the cautious commuter with a drink in her hand,
I stood at the stall and asked for a glass. While the stall operator was
pouring a drink for me, another patron of the stall threw his hot
chocolate glass in the bin kept at the stall. Immediately, a poor girl
from nowhere emerged and quickly picked up the glass. She took it and went
and stood at one of the pillars and shook the leftover drink in the glass
and drank it heartily.

I felt mighty ashamed as I watched this sight. I, the researcher and here,
this girl, who is contended with the leftovers thrown in the trashcan. I,
the commuter and this little girl. I, the dweller of this city, and this
girl, the prodigy of the city, unwanted, abandoned and yet at home. I, the
ashamed; she, the contended. I, suffering from guilt; she, with mirth in
her heart, waiting for the next glass to drop in the bin.

I have been watching children at the railway station – dirty, ragged,
poor, truants, run-away – kids, who have an integral connection with the
railway station. They run from their homes and land right here, and make
the station their very home. The railway station is their home, their
mother, their motherland. And kids have the closest connection with trash
and trashcans at the railway station. The trash and trashcans are vital
for them, their source of food and survival.

All this while, I have been ashamed of being this consumptive dweller of
the city. But now I realize how vital my consumption is for the children
of the railway station.

The children are the stakeholders of the station. The station belongs to
them. Thus, the railway station to Arjun bhai may be a herding ground but
to the kids, it is their home, their hearth, their mother!



Zainab Bawa
Bombay
www.xanga.com/CityBytes